Star Tribune (& other local media)

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twincitizen
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Re: Star Tribune

Postby twincitizen » December 31st, 2014, 10:06 am

Paying the rack rate for the Strib is ridiculous. I just renewed for another year of online access for $20. I would have paid up to $60-80, but that's what they offered me. After an initial renewal invoice for ~$140 for a year.

Paying for journalism is important, but so is getting a good deal.
Curious, where did you find this offer? I attempted to purchase an online-only subscription last week, and the salesperson I spoke to over the phone was convinced that they didn't sell online-only for periods longer than four weeks (without the e-edition that costs nearly as much as getting a physical paper).
My initial online-only deal was something like $5 for 8 weeks. I cancelled that once they charged me the regular rate, which is way too high.

They continued to beg for my return with email offers, and eventually I jumped on one that was like $20 or $25 for 6 months of access, plus TWO FREE STATE FAIR TICKETS. In effect, they're basically paying me a few bucks to read Star Tribune for 6 months, as it was cheaper than the two tickets to the fair.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby FISHMANPET » December 31st, 2014, 10:15 am

Now that I've got a porch I might need a Sunday Strib to read on it every weekend.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby Andrew_F » December 31st, 2014, 10:16 am

My initial online-only deal was something like $5 for 8 weeks. I cancelled that once they charged me the regular rate, which is way too high.

They continued to beg for my return with email offers, and eventually I jumped on one that was like $20 or $25 for 6 months of access, plus TWO FREE STATE FAIR TICKETS. In effect, they're basically paying me a few bucks to read Star Tribune for 6 months, as it was cheaper than the two tickets to the fair.
Ah, I remember that offer (or something similar), which I refused after hearing what the rate would increase to after the introductory period.

So the trick is to get in at an intro rate, cancel before you get charged the regular rate, and then take a "come back!" offer? I wish they could just be straightforward. I'm happy to pay a fair price to support decent local journalism, but I'm really not into running in circles for it. Oh well.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby twincitizen » December 31st, 2014, 10:32 am

Agreed. At least from what I remember from my first cancellation, their website made it pretty tricky to cancel. I just can't justify the regular rate...it's way too high.

I give $5/month to MinnPost, which comes out to $60/year, and there's a certain amount of feel-goody-ness that comes with contributing to a non-profit doing something awesome. Especially with Bill Lindeke writing Cityscape now, there's no way I'd stop contributing to MinnPost. Those feelings of generosity do not extend to the Strib, for whatever reasons, even though I spend countless more hours/week reading the Strib than I do MinnPost. I'll probably cancel again, steal for a while, and resubscribe again when they beg me back again with a great offer. I don't know how sustainable that model is...

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby xandrex » December 31st, 2014, 1:52 pm

Everyone is talking about high prices, but I'm wondering what is considered "high".

I got an intro offer of $0.99 for 10 weeks and now pay under $3 a week for pretty damn good coverage. That's less than I spend if I forget to make coffee in the morning and stop at the Caribou in my building. Hell, it's only marginally more in a month than my Netflix or Spotify subscriptions.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby mattaudio » December 31st, 2014, 2:42 pm

I think the discussion about "value" misses the point. Sure, the $150/yr-ish rack rate is probably a value for most of us who get a lot of news from the Strib. But, 1) clearly there are deals to be had, so why pay more than necessary? and 2) The value isn't really the journalism, but rather the convenience of not having to open incognito tabs to read the news. This marginal utility has a lower value, and is the true product.

I support MinnPost and the rest of the local public media outlets, but those are non-profit enterprises that make me feel like my dollars every month have a stake in the outcome. Strib, OTOH, is selling a commodity: access to a website.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby MNdible » December 31st, 2014, 2:47 pm

I'm not sure that line you're trying to distinguish is really a meaningful one. How is supporting a public enterprise that you value more important than supporting a private enterprise that you value? The money you give to one ends up supporting journalism and gives a profit to investors, the money you give to the other supports journalism and facilitates lawsuits against Metro Transit and the opening of new studios in Southern California.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby EOst » December 31st, 2014, 2:48 pm

For me, the Strib's problem is really that I can't use it as my only news source. When the NY Times is already $5 a week for a digital subscription, adding on that $3 just for a smallish number of local stories doesn't seem like a great deal.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby Anondson » December 31st, 2014, 3:05 pm

That's kind of my thinking EOst, if the Strib had, say, triple the coverage it currently does of areas in "The North" it would be a different proposition for my money.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby Nick » December 31st, 2014, 4:35 pm

Everyone is talking about high prices, but I'm wondering what is considered "high".

I got an intro offer of $0.99 for 10 weeks and now pay under $3 a week for pretty damn good coverage. That's less than I spend if I forget to make coffee in the morning and stop at the Caribou in my building. Hell, it's only marginally more in a month than my Netflix or Spotify subscriptions.
[unnecessarily strong opinion]

People in general price media (+ all things) in bizarre ways. Otherwise well-adjusted adults with salaried jobs pirate music to save, I dunno, ten or twenty bucks a month...on a $1500 Macbook that they use for, at most, an HD YouTube video. People with three TVs and two laptops think cable is too expensive ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[/unnecessarily strong opinion]
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Re: Star Tribune

Postby Silophant » December 31st, 2014, 5:00 pm

I'm for sure guilty of that. I'm blaming it on not being fully adjusted out of poor college student mode yet, but I fairly often find myself spending a lot of time finding ways to save like $2. Then I catch myself, remember that I have a real job now, calculate how long it takes me to earn that much money, realize that it's less time than I've spent worrying about it, make the purchase, and go on with my life. Reading this thread made me realize that a Strib sub definitely falls into that category, and I did just attempt to subscribe, only to find that there's an unspecified error that requires me to call customer service, which is closed for the holiday. So, yes, I agree that their website sucks now.
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Re: Star Tribune

Postby mulad » December 31st, 2014, 5:42 pm

Yeah, I'm not sure what the correct price is for a Strib subscription, either. A price over $100/year does seem high at first glance, but when I think about all the other things that I pay that much for -- sometimes per month -- it's harder to complain about it.

I'm not sure how much I really use their site, though -- I probably read a half dozen articles a day, though half of those at least from links people put up on Twitter.

I'll pile on in the complaints about the subscription system's website, though -- I need to change my address with them, but the only way to do that is to call them up, which seems pretty silly for 2014 (and somehow they've had me listed as living in Lauderdale for the last few years -- I guess parts of my old ZIP code reached up there, but I was definitely in St. Paul...)

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby xandrex » January 1st, 2015, 11:38 pm

I think the discussion about "value" misses the point. Sure, the $150/yr-ish rack rate is probably a value for most of us who get a lot of news from the Strib. But, 1) clearly there are deals to be had, so why pay more than necessary? and 2) The value isn't really the journalism, but rather the convenience of not having to open incognito tabs to read the news. This marginal utility has a lower value, and is the true product.

I support MinnPost and the rest of the local public media outlets, but those are non-profit enterprises that make me feel like my dollars every month have a stake in the outcome. Strib, OTOH, is selling a commodity: access to a website.
Hey, I'd take a deal too. If the Strib offered me access for free, I'd be quite pleased. But I'd still recognize it's worth more than $0. The price I get is not necessarily my economic maximum.

I'm not quite sure why you distinguish the Strib's online subscription as simply access to a website, as if the news is just magically there and without a price. Yeah, there are ways to get around the paywall, but mostly because the Strib is giving you a taste for free, rather than the very locked down F&C or WSJ websites, in the hope that you'll subscribe.

Journalists cost money (despite working for relative peanuts). News wires like the AP aren't free. Websites have to be maintained. If you're consuming the product--but not buying the paper or subscribing--you're free riding.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby Didier » January 2nd, 2015, 9:44 am

For me, the Strib's problem is really that I can't use it as my only news source.
This is kind of backwards as the Star Tribune is by far the most complete news source in the state. MinnPost and MPR and TCBJ are great because they know their limits and do a good job covering certain subjects, but the only outlet that covers everything is the Star Tribune.

To be sure, I understand your point. The Star Tribune doesn't go in depth on certain topics that niche mediums do. But that's kind of how it works. You use Star Tribune for a snapshot of local news, and then go to the niche sites for more in depth news on your topics of interest.

Regarding MinnPost, they have some really good stuff, but there's also quite a bit on the site that I don't like. The Daily Glean steals news from other outlets. Sure, it provides the obligatory link to the real story, but only after providing enough information that most people won't need to click the link. Eric Black annoys me for some reason. Marlys Harris left a lot to be desired, too. I really enjoyed David Brauer's coverage of the media back in the day, but it's been gone for a while. Randomly, one of the areas that MinnPost really excels is in sports coverage. Again, they know their limits, so instead of having beat reporters they stick to features and strong analysis that can't be found anywhere else locally.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby mattaudio » January 2nd, 2015, 9:52 am

Hey, I'd take a deal too. If the Strib offered me access for free, I'd be quite pleased. But I'd still recognize it's worth more than $0. The price I get is not necessarily my economic maximum.
I agree, the Star Tribune is worth much more than what I pay to receive it. But that's not the point. Why would I pay more than I have to? They're the ones making the offer to give it to me for so cheap.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby EOst » January 2nd, 2015, 10:45 am

This is kind of backwards as the Star Tribune is by far the most complete news source in the state. MinnPost and MPR and TCBJ are great because they know their limits and do a good job covering certain subjects, but the only outlet that covers everything is the Star Tribune.

To be sure, I understand your point. The Star Tribune doesn't go in depth on certain topics that niche mediums do. But that's kind of how it works. You use Star Tribune for a snapshot of local news, and then go to the niche sites for more in depth news on your topics of interest.
But that's the thing; compared to national/world news, local Minnesota news is a niche subject.

I'm looking at the Strib's home page now. What's on there? A bunch of national stories that are (drastically) better covered by the Times; some silly local interest ("Dive into the icy waters of Lake Minnetonka!") and sports coverage, which I don't need; and the local news, almost all of which is duplicated by MinnPost/MPR/Pioneer Press/any of the local TV stations/a thousand different blogs. Are they the best source for local news in the state? Absolutely. But when I hit the paywall and can't get it to work, I never really feel like I"m going to miss anything.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby MNdible » January 2nd, 2015, 10:54 am

I will knock the Strib site to the extent that they don't do a better job of featuring their very good local coverage. You often times really need to dig around to find the stories, and even as somebody who's searching out that coverage, it's not unusual to find out that I've somehow missed something.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby xandrex » January 2nd, 2015, 11:25 pm

Hey, I'd take a deal too. If the Strib offered me access for free, I'd be quite pleased. But I'd still recognize it's worth more than $0. The price I get is not necessarily my economic maximum.
I agree, the Star Tribune is worth much more than what I pay to receive it. But that's not the point. Why would I pay more than I have to? They're the ones making the offer to give it to me for so cheap.
My general point in all of it was that for most people, the Strib probably has a value >$0, but you should take whatever deal you can get. I pay a little under $3 a week, but I'd happily take it for much less. I'm not rich by any means.
I'm looking at the Strib's home page now. What's on there? A bunch of national stories that are (drastically) better covered by the Times; some silly local interest ("Dive into the icy waters of Lake Minnetonka!") and sports coverage, which I don't need; and the local news, almost all of which is duplicated by MinnPost/MPR/Pioneer Press/any of the local TV stations/a thousand different blogs. Are they the best source for local news in the state? Absolutely. But when I hit the paywall and can't get it to work, I never really feel like I"m going to miss anything.
Not trying to defend the Strib here, but national stuff is going to be almost exclusively AP material, which rarely seems to be worse than the Times. Hell, the Times runs plenty of AP content themselves.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby mullen » January 5th, 2015, 8:14 am

a lot of stories on our local tv news are flushed from articles in the strib. watch the local early news in particular. they'll go over the star tribune and send a reporter to follow-up on something taken directly from the paper.

it is the best news source in this state. it leads and the other's follow, be it television or web.

the pioneer press is so under invested i'm waiting for the eventual news it's merging with the strib.

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Re: Star Tribune

Postby nate » January 5th, 2015, 12:53 pm

What is keeping the Pioneer Press going, at this point?


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